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Election monitoring group reports denials of access to ballot-counting process

A massive number of activists of “Right of Choice” were prevented from observing the counting of ballots on March 23, the election monitoring group says in a statement.

“Right of Choice” observers were stripped of their accreditation and ejected from polling stations if they tried to defend their right to monitor the vote count, the statement says.

At Polling Station No. 70 in Electoral District No. 35 for the Mahilyow Regional Soviet elections, both representatives of the “Right of Choice” group, retirement-age women, were stripped of accreditation and “forced out” of the station when they attempted to approach the table where ballots were being counted, the statement says. At neighboring Polling Station No. 72, observer Natallya Shkadun suffered a heart attack following an altercation with a member of the precinct election commission. The argument broke out when Ms. Shkadun noticed that the administrator of a local dormitory was checking the list voters to see whether residents of the dormitory had cast their ballots. An ambulance was called for the woman and she was taken to hospital.

Both “Right of Choice” observers were ejected from Polling Station No. 49 in Minsk for allegedly taking photographs and video footage. Neither of them had any recording equipment.

The precinct election commission of Polling Station No. 39 in the same district stripped Pavel Osipaw of his accreditation on the grounds that he had been nominated by the Movement for Freedom. The commission pointed out that the Movement was registered in Hrodna and was not entitled to have observers in Minsk. The commission ignored Mr. Osipaw’s argument that the central election commission had recently allowed all national-level political parties and civil society organizations to deploy election observers to monitor the activities of election commissions of all levels, and that 220 representatives of the Movement for Freedom all over Belarus had been accredited to observe the local elections on the organization’s behalf, the statement says.

“Right of Choice” involved the Belarusian Popular Front, the Movement for Freedom, the “Tell the Truth!” movement, the Hramada Belarusian Social Democratic Party, Belarusian Christian Democracy, the Belarusian Party of the Greens, and the Party of Freedom and Progress.

About 1,200 people were expected to observe the March 18-23 local elections within the framework of the campaign at about 500 polling stations. //BelaPAN